Cymru yn Fenis Wales in Venice with Collateral Event:
Bedwyr Williams and The Starry Messenger
1 June–24 November 2013
Preview: 29–31 May 2013, 10–19h
Ludoteca Santa Maria Ausiliatrice
Fondamenta San Gioacchin, 30122
Venice
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10–18h
“Imagine yourself as a chunk or pebble. What kind would you be? Something big and soft or a quartzy little thing? Don’t imagine yourself as a mineral that is shaped like you. Don’t worry about the shape. If you are a pebble, just imagine arms and belly and bum as one. You are as a pebble—no bits. If you are a staggered bias chunk, imagine yourself as all heel and armpit and boxy chin.”
–from The Starry Messenger by Bedwyr Williams
Bedwyr Williams will present The Starry Messenger as the Wales in Venice Cymru Yn Fenis Collateral Event at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia 2013.
His exhibition explores the relationships between stargazing and the individual, the cosmos, and the role of the amateur in a professional world. The Starry Messenger references Galileo’s short treatise, Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), which was written in Venice and published in 1610 and detailed Galileo’s early observations of the Moon, the stars, and the moons of Jupiter, when he first looked through a telescope.
Housed in the Ludoteca Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Venice, a church and former convent, its traditional terrazzo tiled floor—made up of tiny pieces of marble, quartz, granite and glass—sparked an initial idea for the exhibition:
“I thought about people staring into the terrazzo, which is like a universe made of tiny particles, and the people who had worshiped there. Maybe they stared into the floor and perhaps lost themselves in the particles, if, say, they were bored at a sermon. And then I thought about Galileo, who presented his telescope to the Doge in Venice, which was the first place he showed it. In a church a telescope is a kind of ‘enemy’ in a way. The church wouldn’t necessarily encourage you to look too far out of space, nor too much into inner space.”
This, together with an everyday human curiosity for looking up to the stars, has informed Williams’ inspiration for the installation.
The Starry Messenger begins by inviting visitors to enter a darkened room housing a model observatory. Birdsong and ambient noise evoke the contemplative atmosphere of a suburban garden at night. The sound of a man quietly weeping can also be heard.
Throughout the exhibition, visitors’ senses will be filled with the sights and sounds of a domesticated cosmos, as Williams draws on imagery from both the homely setting of the hobbyist and the unknowable universe at large, paying homage to the awe-struck amateur astronomer: “It’s good to know that while most of us are looking inwardly that there are some people around the world looking out,” says Williams.
The project is jointly curated by MOSTYN and Oriel Davies and supported by Arts Council of Wales. Bedwyr Williams is represented by Ceri Hand Gallery, London.
Media contacts
Welsh Media:
Siân James: T 029 2044 1344 / M 07812 801356 / sian.james [at] artswales.org.uk
Other UK & International:
Emma Pettit or Stephanie Knox at Margaret: T +44 (0) 20 7923 2861 / emma [at] margaretlondon.com / steph [at] margaretlondon.com
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